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OPA Launches Fight Against Local Health Department Licensing of Pharmacies

In the last legislative session, the County Health Departments placed wording inside a "food establishments" bill that allowed them to license any facility that sells OTC medications, water, and even CHEWING GUM or ICE! (Watch out bait shops!) Their legislation was supposed to simply restructure the licensure program for food establishments to make it more simple. However, pharmacies, either through oversight or an interest in increasing licensing revenues, were included. OPA members have done a great job already of contacting legislators, and we have many jumping on board to support the concept. The bill should be drafted and in the legislature in early March. We are also strongly objecting to the amounts being charged, in that they even exceed your pharmacy license fees, in many cases! Yes, they do have the legal right, until our legislation passes, to license you, but we believe that their charges are far in excess of a reasonable amount. We will inform you as this legislation is ready for action.